6
Late Roman Britain suffered many upheavals,
from both without and within as typified by
the construction of the fort of Othona at
Bradwell-on-Sea. In AD410 Emperor Honorius
cut off his protection to Britain's cities,
and subsequently the province slowly died, and
the progressively harried Romano-Britons left
deserted villas in the face of hostile Saxons.
As the withdrawal was not always smooth cats
probably found themselves occasionally left
behind. Despite the high value placed by
Romans on these exotic pets, they would not
have been so securely guarded as by the Ancient
Egyptians, so during the less disturbed
periods occasional cats would also have strayed
Survival for the ancestors of our present cats
during the subsequent upheavals would have
depended on their ability to live feral and in
a landscape then fully populated with our
native wildcat (Felis sylvestris). The
formation of the original kingdom of the East
Saxons, the dynastic battles of the English
tribes, were followed by Danish attacks, and
invasion with Essex in the front line. During
the Saxon period the early Christian centres
such as Barking and Bradwell were relatively
small. However the 10th-12th centuries saw
an expansion and growth of the unchallenged
Benedictine order abbeys to lavish size. An
austere revolt ushered in a range of smaller
more open-looking houses typified by the
Augustinian cannons.
An association developed between clerics and
cats, as shown by a number of specific
references to them, such as cats were the only
pets allowed in monasteries. The advent of
monasteries may have seen the beginning